This weekend the teams race on the new Buddh International Circuit, located about 50 kilometres south east of New Delhi. The track has similarities in composition of corners to a number of F1 circuits but it has unusual features too. So how will the teams tune the cars in to the circuit and what will the winning race strategy be on Sunday?

Here is a comprehensive guide to the considerations the F1 engineers will be looking at when deciding how to attack this weekend’s race.

Track characteristics

Buddh International – 5.125 kilometres. Race distance – 60 laps = 307.249 kilometres. 16 corners in total. Average speed 210 km/h. A new circuit hosting a Grand Prix for the first time

The track is a combination of mostly slow speed corners and some long straights, which leads to a reasonably high average speed. The first sector of the lap is stop-start, with two straights intercut with hairpins, while the middle sector is a flowing section featuring some faster corners, including the banked Turn 10/11, which engineers estimate will be approaching the G force on the drivers and loading on the tyres of Turn 8 in Turkey.

The track has a lot of elevation change, rising 14 metres from Turn 1 to Turn 3, which contributes a little to increasing the fuel weight penalty, in other words the weight of every 10kg of fuel slows you down more than at some other tracks.

During practice and qualifying the adjustable DRS wing can be used for approximately 62% of the lap, roughly similar to Spa. In the race it will help overtaking on the straight. With 20 metre track width, overtaking should not be a problem at Buddh.

Teams will have been using simulation tools in the factories to establish baseline items such as gear ratios, wing levels, springs and cooling requirements. But they can only really understand the grip level of the track and the tyre wear rates by running on the circuit. It would appear that the track surface is quite smooth and there are no real bumps.

The total fuel needed for the race is high at over 160 kilos, which will test the fuel tank size of some teams, especially with the higher fuel consumption brought about by exhaust blowing diffusers. Recently we have seen an increasing number of drivers running out of fuel on the slow down lap after the chequered flag. We may well see that again in India.

Form Guide

The Indian Grand Prix is the 17th round of 19 in the 2011 FIA F1 World Championship. Sebastian Vettel has clinched his second consecutive world championship and won four of the last five races, but the Red Bull team has lost its 100% record in qualifying, as Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren took pole in Korea. However on race day the Red Bull was still the fastest car and the Buddh Circuit should suit its car.

Most teams are using the final races of the season to test out ideas and components for next season, so relative performance can change, for example Ferrari were not particularly fast in Korea, until the second half of the race.

Weather Forecast

The forecast for the weekend is stable with temperatures in the mid-20˚Cs to low 30˚Cs and track temperatures up in the low 40˚Cs.

Likely tyre performance and other considerations

Pirelli tyre choice for India: Soft (yellow markings) and Hard (silver markings). This combination was seen in the first five races as well as Silverstone.

Although the teams have the basic information about the circuit, the radius of each corner and length of the straights, they do not yet have a good feel for the abrasiveness of the track surface and the level of track improvement over the weekend. This will be crucial to making the right calls on Sunday. Teams will use the extra set of Pirelli soft tyres available for practice on Friday to learn as much as possible about tyre degradation.

Simulations show that the circuit provides a similar level of tyre challenge as Silverstone and Korea, with 80% of the tyre energy of Suzuka. The high temperatures are likely to lead to tyre blistering, particularly on the shoulder of the tyre and camber angles will have to be conservative to cope with heat build up the long straights.

The combination of soft and hard tyres is a very conservative one; it is a new track and Pirelli don’t want to take any chances. The combination has not been seen since Silverstone, (which started in wet conditions so the hard tyre was not used) and earlier in the season, in Barcelona for example, we saw a performance difference of over 2 seconds between the two compounds.

This will mean that drivers will want to qualify on the soft and do most of the race on it, with probably no more that 10 laps on the hard tyre at the beginning or end of the race.

The main taking point is likely to be the fast Turns 10 and 11: similar in its characteristics to the famous Turn 8 in Turkey, although tightening, rather than opening out and therefore slower. It will put a lot of lateral energy through the tyres. The corner is a right hander, so it will hurt the front-left tyre in particular and this could be a limiting factor in the race.

Wheels spinning under acceleration out of the many low speed corners will also take quite a bit out of the rear tyres.

Whereas the Bridgestone hard tyres were better at coping with high temperatures than the softs, with Pirelli it is the other way around.

Number and likely timing of pit stops

The pit lane at Buddh is long at 600 metres, but simulations show that it can be negotiated in 20 seconds including the stationary time, so it’s not as bad from a strategic point of view as might be imagined.

Drivers will want to spend as little time as possible on the hard tyre, as it will be so slow in comparison with the soft. So strategists will be planning around 10 laps or less on it. For top ten drivers, who must start the race on their qualifying tyres, they will take the hard tyre at the end of the race; for those outside the top ten, who can choose their starting tyre for the race, we may see some opting to get the hard tyre out of the way early, as the pace will be slower with traffic in the first ten laps than when the field has spread out in the last ten laps. Heidfeld (Renault), Sutil and Barrichello tried this strategy in Barcelona.

On paper therefore, allowing for that short stint on hards, strategists will be planning a three stop race, but the game will be to establish whether it’s possible to cut that down to two stops, by making the softs last longer and using the hard for a little longer. Teams like Toro Rosso and Sauber, which have made a speciality of extending the opening stints and gaining track position in the process, may well try it again here.

Otherwise there will probably not be a big variation between strategies this weekend.

Chance of a Safety Car

As there is no data this is yet to be established. However we have seen a number of safety cars around one third distance in the races this season, which have mixed up the order. A Safety Car at Buddh would help drivers attempting to make one less stop.

Recent start performance

Starts are a critical part of the race and strategy can be badly compromised by a poor start, while good starts can make strategists change their plans in the hope of a good result.

In Korea, the winners off the line were Kovalainen, Barrichello and Ricciardo (gained 3 places) while the losers were Button, (lost 3 places), Buemi and Senna (lost 4 places). Senna’s starts have been a problem since he came back to F1 with Renault. He’s now lost 19 places in just five races. Compare that with Ricciardo, who has gained 10 places off the start in his eight races.

As far as 2011 start performance is concerned drivers have gained (+) or lost (-) places off the start line this season on aggregate as follows:

* Schumacher had one bad start in Australia, losing 8 places but since then has been the season’s outstanding starter. He gained 9 places in Spa and four in Monza.

** Kobayashi lost 10 places in Spain, prior to that he had gained 8 in 4 starts.

*** After losing places in the first three races, Alonso has reversed that trend. His starts in Barcelona and Monza were outstanding.

**** Petrov had a good record until he lost 4 places at the start in Valencia. He was on a +2 balance before Monza where he was taken out at the start.

***** Rosberg lost four places at the start in Silverstone and was on a +6 balance before Monza where he was taken out in the first corner

****** Heidfeld had gained 20 places but lost 12 at the start in Germany

******* Di Resta had consistent start form and gained 7 places in the first nine races, but lost 12 at the start in Germany.

# Buemi made up nine places at the start in Hungary having started 23rd on the grid

## Sutil had a positive start balance until Hungary where he lost 12 places at the start

### Perez lost nine places off the start in Hungary.

#### Alguersuari was doing well with a +6 record prior to Spa, where he was hit by another car and lost 18 places. In Monza he gained 7 places at the start.

Pit Stop League Table

Of course good strategy planning also requires good pit stop execution by the mechanics and there have been some amazing performances; we have seen tyre stops carried out in less than two and a half seconds this year.

The table below shows the fastest single stops in the recent Korean Grand Prix. Allow approximately 17 seconds for “loss time” ie the time it takes the car to travel down the pit lane and enter the pit box. The difference between that and the time shown below is the stop time, plus the driver’s reaction time when released.

Red Bull’s pit crew were the only team to break 20 seconds in Korea, while Virgin slipped to the bottom of the pile, below HRT.

I think it's a bit misleading as laps are different lengths. Fuel consumption per km should tally with fuel consumption per race. Just because the lap is shorter than average doesn't make the consumption average.

I guess this consumption per lap number really relates to the fuel load needed for qualifying - so the penalty for doing more than one flying lap in a run is not as bad as the high consumption (per unit distance) would suggest.

Thanks for the report James. As always, very thorough and well analysed.

It is always hot and humid in India. Not sure how long the soft tyre will last. If they can hold on, then there could be teams pitting on the last lap for the harder tyres because of the expected lap time difference between the tyres. We also might see some drivers not going out in Q3 to preserve the tyres. From a strategy point of view I don’t see a problem but I feel sorry for the fans who travel all the way to Delhi to see the cars on the track.

I understand that there will be two DRS zones. I am not a fan of DRS but as you have already mentioned, I believe overtaking won’t be a problem. However, as always, backmarkers could be a problem at slow corners. Karthikeyan is one driver who always forgets he has mirrors on his car. Hope he doesn’t get carried away too much at his hometown trying to impress his fans.

Albeit the drivers’ championship is decided, I don’t think fans are switching off their TVs. It is only getting better every race. Looking forward to the race weekend.

I have been driving this track on Codemasters F1 2011 game on PS3, and I can therefore confirm with authority that James is correct in his analysis. 😉 😉 😉

I don't know if anyone else would be inetrested James, but an article on this game (you might even get a few free copies as a prize giveaway from the chaps at Codemasters) and how it resembles the real thing might be of interest! Many of us probably have a game rig and a F1 game at home and wonder if it is anything like the rela thing. Ant Davidson worked on its development, perhaps you could get him to do a piece? If I remeber correctly you did a short article on last year's game...

The constructors championship finishing order past top spot have yet to be determined. Where a team finishes in the constructors championship dictates the amount of money they receive for the season. There is potentially still a lot on the line for eleven of the teams on the grid.

I'm still seeing it quoted that this circuit will be the second fastest average speed after Monza. Will it really be faster than Spa? Hard to imagine from the map.

James, why is it that circuits don't name the corners any more? There are some wonderfully evocative names in circuits such as Imola, Monza and Spa. You need to ask Bernie to insist on this! (but please - no sponsor names....)

Circuit corners aren't named anymore because many haven't been around long enough. If they stick around 50+ years like Monza or Silverstone then yes they'll likely get corner names and perhaps they'll be memorable.

It's strange, Red Bull are quoting 235km/h average speed, which is more than other teams simulators are seeing. Either a) they got it wrong b) it's a clever piece of gamesmanship or c) they are correct and are going to blow the opposition away!

I was really hoping to see McLaren, Ferrari or Mercedes turn up with some good speed improvements over these last few races to give us some hope that 2012 will be something other than a Red Bull walkover.

Apart from Lewis's great pole, there hasn't been much encouragement in that area.

Sounds like this track is going to be pretty good to Red Bull as well.

I think the comment that "Otherwise there will probably not be a big variation between strategies this weekend" pretty-much sums it up. Maybe I'm becoming a bit disenchanted but all of the teams have expert strategists using (I would think) fairly identical software so it's fairly hard to imagine that they would have wildly varying verdicts on best-strategy.

I note that there have been reports that RBR/SV have said that their strategy/desire is to now get MW into No.2 on the championship : will be interesting to see how they try to make that happen from a strategy perspective.

It's not too hard to predict the best strategy given fuel penalty, tyre life (before cliff), pace difference between tyre compounds and pit stop loss time. The skill comes in the fact that the tyre life and the pace difference are not known - although Friday practice usually gives good clues.

Usually, different cars behave differently (Sauber are better on harder tyres relative to others, Ferrari tend to be better on softer tyres) leading to different strategies being optimal - but here the large pace difference between the harder and softer tyres will probably dominate.

Using James' numbers for fuel and assuming the tyres last as long as you want with a 2s performance gap, two and three stops are almost identical - and can be done with similar short stints (~6 laps) on the hard tyre. I reckon that you'd need at least 23 laps from the softs to make 2 stops worth a try.

I hope we can get a good race out of this weekend. New track, battle for 2nd place still going on, rivalry between team-mates(JB & LH, MS & NR), battle for 6th and 7th place in the constructors championship.

It will be warm but not that humid at this point in year. From whatever little glimpse my friends had from Delhi, they say the surface looks pretty dusty and grip level will be an issue especially in first 2 days. But then there is report in local media which quotes Jaypee group making sure that the surface is taken care of.

Quite contrary to usual perception, Delhi is far from NK's home town. NK is from down south and Delhi is up North.

And I can tell you about the love these two parts of India share :).

I am flying on Friday morning to Delhi. It will be interesting to see how do FPs pan out.

The recent start performance is a good indication of start consistency for the mid pack. It is not useful info for the front runners like Vettel, Hamilton.

This year, it is clear that Schumacher has caught up to Rosberg's level in consistency. Rosberg is still better in Quali though. The best start talent of Schumacher makes up his weak quali performance.

Interesting to see that Webber has the worse start performance and yet he is in the top 4.

There is still more Schumacher to come (in 2012) where as Rosberg is already max out.

There's an interview with the man himself in F1 Racing this month, in which he says that he does want to come back. There are talks with Williams but there is nothing decided yet. He hopes to be driving in 2012, but thinks 2013 is more likely at the moment.

I suspect that if he did sign for Williams, there would be a solid performance exit clause to enable him to get out if the car doesn't perform. It may even drag on until he has a chance to drive the 2012 car.

One mad thought which occurs is that he may already be signed for 2013 by his Rally sponsor, Red Bull and could be parked at Williams with a Red Bull-assisted paycheck for a season. They wouldn't mind helping out another Renault-engined team which doesn't pose a threat, while keeping Kimi away from a possible Mercedes seat. There could even be the same arrangement with Mercedes, they paid for Michael to drive that Jordan 20 years ago, so they are no strangers to such deals.

There's also the strong possibility of LRGP if Robert doesn't make the deadline set by Mr Boullier. Yes, they had a bit of a row last year, but F1 has a habit of overlooking such small obstacles if it suits both parties. A one-year contract would suit them both.

C Lin, I had to check what I wrote again when I read your comment. I did say "He wants to come back" did I not? It's the first time we've had a definite statement of Kimi's thoughts, so I thought it was valuable to quote him.

James, as usual great thought provoking analysis. Thinking 2011 vs 2012, As blown diffusers are fuel hungry what penalty in kg of fuel is being carried, grip effect on reducing laptime versus 2012 resultant less grip increasing lap time. Taken together for this years chassis would it put the top teams back in the pack? In other words how much differential performance loss are we talking about that has to be clawed back.

For 2012 domination do you believe it will even up the teams to make it closer finishing.

Really looking forward to a brand new track but it is a shame that no track tyre data available to teams as we want a race not a tyre development session. Cheers Chris

James - a couple of questions. Apologies if they have been covered in other blog posts.

1. do you have any insight as to why the RBs struggled to overtake in the DRS zones at Korea? Is this because their set up is tilted towards running in free air and therefore the aero is maxed out without DRS?

2. I don't think I'd heard you presenting the post race interviews for a while (apologies if this is my error). Will this change?

Joking aside. The McLarens had mighty traction out of turn 1 and the Red Bull couldn't hold a candle to it - meaning that the Red Bull; once it activated the DRS; would already be far behind the McLaren due to its mighty traction.

I know we've been through this before, but comparing the start performances of Senna and Ricciardo isn't strictly fair. If you start at the back it's hard to lose places, so on average your start performance will be positive. However, I agree that Senna's performance looks below par.

Interesting point. Are you measuring places gained/lost at the end of the first lap, or at the first sector split? I'm assuming that over the first lap (or sector, if that's what you're measuring) ultimate car pace is less important than pre-start preparation (e.g. temperatures), grid getaway and racecraft through the first few corners. So, while I can see your point I'm not sure how significant it really is.

I tune into the races on One HD in Australia and see you on their quite frequently. I think it is great for an Australian network to have the insights of such a high profile F1 mind. I was wondering how the TV broadcasts will change for next year with the new deal and if I will still be able to watch it for free in Australia?

Depends whether BBC take the Sky commentary, which they are contractually able to do, or whether they do their own thing. If there is a choice then broadcasters like Network 10 will have to decide which feed they want. Sky won't have ads, so both will be uninterrupted feeds.

My first point, relates to the extensive debates following the horrific Las Vegas accident, and JYS's contention that the first issue to tackle is that of interlocking wheels, and driving standards.

For the past three seasons I have cringed every time SV does his violent swerving/ blocking moves after the start line. I hope someone back-tracks on old video footage of this, and I hope it will be stopped immediately. I'm sure JB would support this argument.

My second point coincidentally also involves SV, but it relates to the collision with JB in Spa last year.I was convinced that as SV closed rapidly onto the rear of JB's McLaren, in that moment JB opened his F-duct and caused aero turbulence, which sent SV's torsionally-soft front spoiler into a torsional frenzy. (I don't think the accident was caused by SV driver error at all). This discussion has obviously just been triggered after seeing both Ferrari front spoilers going into torsional frenzy under braking in a straight line. It looks extremely dangerous to me and I hope Ferrari will be stopped from using these spoilers in the race on the grounds of safety.